2016 – Characteristics of Near Fault Ground Motions for Seismic Design

Paul Somerville

This paper describes the unique characteristics of near-fault ground motions for use in developing ground motions for the design and evaluation of dams that are located close to identified active faults. These characteristics include near-fault rupture directivity effects, permanent ground displacements, and hanging wall effects. In Australia, active faults make a significant contribution to the Maximum Credible Earthquake (MCE) only at near-fault sites when Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) is used. However, some sites may be close enough to nearby or even more distant identified active faults that a Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis (DSHA) produces MCE ground motions that are for larger than those obtained using a probabilistic approach even for very long return periods. Knowledge of the unique characteristics of near-fault ground motions should be applied to the development of ground motions for the design and evaluation of dams that are located close to identified active faults.